with purple and crowned him with thorns and put a cane in his hand for a scepter and bowed their knees before him and saluted him with mockery with a Hail King of the Jews and 〈◊〉 beat him and spate upon him and then Pilate brought him forth and shewed this sad spectacle to the people hoping this might move them to compassion who never loved to see a man prosperous and are always troubled to see the same man in misery But the Earth which was cursed for Adam's sake and was sowed with thorns and thistles produced the full harvest of them and the Second Adam gathered them all and made garlands of them as ensigns of his Victory which he was now in pursuit of against Sin the Grave and Hell And we also may make our thorns which are in themselves 〈◊〉 and dolorous to be a Crown if we bear 〈◊〉 patiently and unite them to Christ's Passion and offer them to his honour and bear them in his cause and rejoyce in them for his sake And indeed after such a grove of 〈◊〉 growing upon the head of our Lord to see one of Christ's members soft delicate and effeminate is a great indecency next to this of seeing the Jews use the King of glory with the greatest reproach and infamy 12. But nothing prevailing nor the Innocence of Jesus nor his immunity from the sentence of Herod nor the industry and diligence of Pilate nor the misery nor the sight of the afflicted Lamb of God at last for so God decreed to permit it and Christ to 〈◊〉 it Pilate gave sentence of death upon him having first washed his hands of which God served his end to declare the Innocence of his Son of which in this whole process he was most curious and suffered not the least probability to adhere to him yet Pilate served no end of his nor preserved any thing of his innocence He that 〈◊〉 upon a Prince and cries Saving your honour you are a Tyrant and he that strikes a man upon the face and cries him mercy and undoes him and says it was in jest does just like that person that sins against God and thinks to be excused by saying it was against his Conscience that is washing our hands when they are stained in bloud as if a ceremony of purification were enough to cleanse a soul from the stains of a spiritual impurity So some refuse not to take any Oath in times of Persecution and say it obliges not because it was forced and done against their wills as if the doing of it were washed off by protesting against it whereas the protesting against it declares me criminal if I rather chuse not death than that which I profess to be a sin But all the persons which cooperated in this death were in this life consigned to a fearful judgment after it The Jews took the bloud which Pilate seemed to wash off upon themselves and their children and the bloud of this Paschal Lamb stuck upon their forehead and marked them not to escape but to fall under the sword of the destroying Angel and they perished either by a more hasty death or shortly after in the extirpation and miserable ruine of their Nation And Pilate who had a less share in the crime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a black character of a secular Judgment for not long after he was by Vitellius the President of Syria sent to Rome to answer to the crimes objected against him by the Jews whom to please he had done so much violence to his Conscience and by 〈◊〉 sentence he was banished to Vienna deprived of all his honours where he lived ingloriously till by impatience of his calamity he killed himself with his own hand And thus the bloud of Jesus shed for the Salvation of the world became to them a Curse and that which purifies the Saints stuck to them that shed it and mingled it not with the tears of Repentance to be a leprosie loathsome and incurable So Manna turns to worms and the wine of Angels to Vineger and Lees when it is received into impure vessels or tasted by wanton palats and the Sun himself produces Rats and Serpents when it reflects upon the dirt of Nilus The PRAYER O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God who wert pleased to 〈◊〉 shame and sorrow to be brought before tribunals to be accused maliciously betrayed treacherously condemned unjustly and scourged most 〈◊〉 suffering the most severe and most unhandsome inflictions which could be procured by potent subtle and extremest malice and didst 〈◊〉 this out of love greater than the love of Mothers more affectionate than the tears of joy and pity dropt from the eyes of most passionate women by these fontinels of bloud issuing forth life and health and pardon upon all thine enemies teach me to apprehend the baseness of Sin in proportion to the greatest of those calamities which my sin made it necessary for thee to susfer that I may hate the cause of thy 〈◊〉 and adore thy mercy and imitate thy charity and copy 〈◊〉 thy patience à nd humility and love thy person to the uttermost extent and degrees of my affections Lord what am I that the eternal Son of God should 〈◊〉 one stripe for me But thy Love is infinite and how great a misery is it to provoke by sin so great a mercy and despise so miraculous a goodness and to do fresh despite to the Son of God But our sins are innumerable and our infirmities are mighty Dearest Jesu pity me for I am accused by my own Conscience and am found guilty I am stripped naked of my Innocence and bound fast by Lust and tormented with stripes and wounds of enraged Appetites But let thy Innocence excuse me the robes of thy Righteousness cloath me thy Bondage set me free and thy Stripes heal me that thou being my Advocate my Physician my Patron and my Lord I may be adopted into the union of thy Merits and partake of the efficacy of thy Sufferings and be crowned as thou art having my sins changed to vertues and my thorns to rays of glory under thee our Head in the participations of Eternity O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God Amen DISCOURSE XX. Of Death and the due manner of Preparation to it 1. THE Holy Spirit of God hath in Scripture revealed to us but one way of preparing to Death and that is by a holy life and there is nothing in all the Book of Life concerning this exercise of address to Death but such advices which suppose the dying person in a state of Grace S. James indeed counsels that in sickness we should send for the Ministers Ecclesiastical and that they pray over us and that we confess our sins and they shall be forgiven that is those prayers are of great efficacy for the removing the sickness and taking off that punishment of sin and healing them in a certain degree according to the efficacy of the ministery and the dispositions or capacities of the sick person But
contend that his Reliques were brought to and are still preserved at Triers in Germany a controversie wherein I shall not concern my self His memory is celebrated in the Greek Church August the IX as appears not only from their Menologies but from a Novel constitution of Manuel Comuenus appointing what holy days should be kept in the Church while the Western Churches keep February XXIV sacred to his memory Among many other Apocryphal writings attributed to the Apostles there was a Gospel published under his name mentioned by Eusebius and the Ancients and condemned with the rest by Gelasius Bishop of Rome as it had been rejected by others before him Under his name also there were extant Traditions cited by Clemens of Alexandria from whence no question it was that the Nicolaitans borrowed that saying of his which they abused to so vile and beastly purposes as under the pretended patronage of his name and doctrines the Marcionites and Valentinians defended some of their most absurd and impious opinions The End of S. Matthias's Life THE LIFE OF S. MARK the Evangelist The Evangelist St. Mark He having been the Coädiutor of St. Paul St. Peter severally at Alexandria planted governd a Church and there by the violence of the Pagan multitude suffered Martyrdom AD. 64. Baron Centur St. Mark 's Martyrdom Hebr. 11. 35. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection Of whom the world was not worthy His Kindred and distinction from others of the same Name Whether one of the Seventy His Conversion His attendance upon Peter and Preaching the Gospel in Italy and at Rome His planting Christianity at Alexandria and great success there An account of the Therapeutae mentioned by Philo and their excellent manners rules and way of Life These proved not to have been Christians by several arguments The Original of the mistake whence S. Mark' s Preaching in the Parts of Africk His return to Alexandria and diligence in his Ministry The manner of his Martyrdom The time of it enquired into The description of his Person His Gospel when and where written and why said to be Peter's His great impartiality in his Relations In what Language written The Original whether extant at this Day 1. SAINT Mark though carrying something of Roman in his Name probably assumed by him upon some great change or accident of his Life or which was not unusual among the Jews when going into the European Provinces of the Roman Empire taken up at his going for Italy and Rome was doubtless born of Jewish Parents originally descended of the Tribe of Levi and the Line of the Priesthood and if Nicephorus say true Sister 's Son to Peter though by others against all reason confounded with John sirnamed Mark the Son of Mary and Mark Sisters Son to Barnabas By the Ancients he is generally thought to have been one of the Seventy Disciples and Epiphanius expresly tells us that he was one of those who taking exception at our Lord's discourse of cating his Flesh and drinking his Blood went back and walked no more with him but was seasonably reduced and reclaimed by Peter But no foundation appears either for the one or for the other nay Papias Bishop of Hierapolis who lived near those times positively affirms that he was no hearer nor follower of our Saviour He was converted by some of the Apostles and probably by S. Peter who is said to have been his undertaker at his Baptism if I understand 〈◊〉 aright for no other reason I suppose than because he calls him his Son Indeed he was his constant attendant in his Travails supplying the place of an Amanuensis and Interpreter for though the Apostles were divinely inspired and among other miraculous powers had the gift of Languages conferred upon them yet was the interpretation of Tongues a gift more peculiar to some than others This might probably be S. Mark' s Talent in expounding S. Peter's Discourses whether by word or writing to those who understood not the Language wherein they were delivered He accompanied him in his Apostolical progress Preached the Gospel in Italy and at Rome where at the request of the Christians of those Parts he composed and wrote his Gospel 2. BY Peter he was sent into Egypt to plant Christianity in those Parts fixing his main residence at Alexandria and the places thereabouts where so great says Eusebius was the success of his Ministry that he converted Multitudes both of Men and Women not only to the embracing of the Christian Religion but to a more than ordinarily strict profession of it insomuch that Philo wrote a Book of their peculiar Rites and way of Life the only reason why S. Hierom reckons him among the Writers of the Church Indeed Philo the Jew wrote a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extant at this day wherein he speaks of a sort of Persons called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in many parts of the World but especially in a pleasant place near the Maraeotick Lake in Egypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies and gives a large account of their Rites and Customes their strict philosophical and contemplative course of life He tells us of them that when they first enter upon this way they renounce all secular interests and imployments and leaving their Estates to their Relations retire into Groves and Gardens and Places devoted to solitude and contemplation that they had their Houses or Colledges not contiguous that so being free from noise and tumult they might the better minister to the designs of a contemplative life nor yet removed at too great a distance that they might maintain mutual society and be conveniently capable of helping and assisting one another In each of these Houses there was an Oratory call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they discharged the more secret and solemn Rites of their Religion divided in the middle with a Partition wall three or four Cubits high the one apartment being for the Men and the other for the Women here they publickly met every Seventh day where being set according to their seniority and having composed themselves with great decency and reverence the most aged Person among them and best skilled in the Dogmata and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst gravely and soberly discoursing what might make the deepest impression upon their minds the rest attending with a profound silence and only testifying their assent with the motion of their Eyes or Head Their discourses were usually my stical and allegorical seeking hidden sences under plain words and of such an allegorical Philosophy consisted the Books of their Religion left them by their Ancestors The Law they compared to an Animal the Letter of it resembling the Body while the Soul of it lay in those abstruse and recondite notions which the external veil and surface of the words concealed from vulgar understandings He tells
the same reasonable Propositions into other Nations and he therefore multiplied them to a great necessity of a dispersion that they might serve the ends of God and of the natural Law by their ambulatory life and their numerous disseminations And this was it which S. Paul 〈◊〉 The Law was added because of transgression meaning that because men did transgress the natural God brought Moses's Law into the world to be as a strand to the inundation of Impiety And thus the world stood till the fulness of time was come for so we are taught by the Apostle The Law was added because of transgression but the date of this was to expire at a certain period it was added to serve but till the seed should come to whom the Promise was made 23. For because Moses's Law was but an imperfect explication of the natural there being divers parts of the three Laws of Nature not at all explicated by that Covenant not the religion of Prayers not the reasonableness of Temperance and Sobriety in Opinion and Diet and in the more noble instances of Humanity and doing benefit it was so short that as S. Paul says The Law could not make the comers thereunto perfect and which was most of all considerable it was confined to a Nation and the other parts of mankind had made so little use of the Records of that Nation that all the world was placed in darkness and sate in the 〈◊〉 of death Therefore it was that in great mercy God sent his Son a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel to instruct those and consummate these that the imperfection of the one and the mere darkness of the other might be illustrated by the Sun of Righteousness And this was by restoring the Light of Nature which they by evil Customs and 〈◊〉 Principles and evil Laws had obscured by restoring Man to the liberty of his spirit by freeing him from the slavery of Sin under which they were so lost and oppressed that all their discourses and conclusions some of their moral Philosophy and all their habitual practices were but servants of sin and made to cooperate to that end not which God intended as perfective of humane nature but which the Devil and vicious persons superinduced to serve little ends and irregular and to destroy the greater 24. For certain it is Christianity is nothing else but the most perfect design that ever was to make a man be happy in his whole capacity and as the Law was to the Jews so was Philosophy to the Gentiles a Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ to teach them the rudiments of Happiness and the first and lowest things of Reason that when Christ was come all mankind might become perfect that is be made regular in their Appetites wise in their Understandings assisted in their Duties directed to and instructed in their great Ends. And this is that which the Apostle calls being perfect men in Christ Jesus perfect in all the intendments of nature and in all the designs of God And this was brought to pass by discovering and restoring and improving the Law of Nature and by turning it all into Religion 25. For the natural Law being a sufficient and a proportionate instrument and means to bring a man to the End designed in his creation and this Law being eternal and unalterable for it ought to be as lasting and as unchangeable as the nature it self so long as it was capable of a Law it was not imaginable that the body of any Law should make a new Morality new rules and general proportions either of Justice or Religion or Temperance or Felicity the essential parts of all these consisting in natural proportions and means toward the consummation of man's last End which was first intended and is always the same It is as if there were a new truth in an essential and a necessary Proposition For although the instances may vary there can be no new Justice no new Temperance no new relations proper and natural relations and intercourses between God and us but what always were in Praises and Prayers in adoration and honour and in the symbolical expressions of God's glory and our needs 26. Hence it comes that that which is the most obvious and notorious appellative of the Law of Nature that it is a Law written in our hearts was also recounted as one of the glories and excellencies of Christianity Plutarch saying that Kings ought to be governed by Laws explains himself that this Law must be a word not written in Books and Tables but dwelling in the Mind a living rule the 〈◊〉 guide of their manners and monitors of their life And this was the same which S. Paul expresses to be the guide of the Gentiles that is of all men naturally The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts And that we may see it was the Law of Nature that returned in the Sanctions of Christianity God declares that in the constitution of this Law he would take no other course than at first that is he would write them in the hearts of men indeed with a new style with a quill taken from the wings of the holy Dove the Spirit of God was to be the great Engraver and the Scribe of the New Covenant but the Hearts of men should be the Tables For this is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and into their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more That is I will provide a means to expiate all the iniquities of man and restore him to the condition of his first creation putting him into the same order towards Felicity which I first designed to him and that also by the same instruments Now I consider that the Spirit of God took very great care that all the Records of the Law of Jesus should be carefully kept and transmitted to posterity in Books and Sermons which being an act of providence and mercy was a provision lest they should be lost or mistaken as they were formerly when God writ some of them in Tables of stone for the use of the sons of Israel and all of them in the first Tables of Nature with the 〈◊〉 of Creation as now he did in the new creature by the singer of the Spirit But then writing them in the Tables of our minds besides the other can mean nothing but placing them there where they were before and from whence we blotted them by the mixtures of impure principles and discourses But I descend to particular and more minute considerations 27. The Laws of Nature either are bands of Religion Justice or Sobriety Now I consider concerning Religion that when-ever God hath made any particular Precepts to a Family as to Abraham's or
proof of their earnest and need an earnest of the earnest For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it or certainly know it neither is it defined by how many indices the Spirit 's presence can be proved or figâ—â—ed And they limit the Spirit too much and understand it too little who take acâ—â—unts of his secret workings and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects And yet because whatsoever is holy is made so by the Holy Spirit we are certain that the Children of believing that is of Christian Parents are holy S. Paul affirmed it and by it hath distinguished ours from the Children of unbelievers and our Marriages from theirs And because the Children of the Heathen when they come to choice and Reason may enter into Baptism and the Covenant if they will our Children have no priviledge beyond the Children of Turks or Heathens unless it be in the present capacity that is either by receiving the Holy Ghost immediately and the Promises or at least having a title to the Sacrament and entring by that door If they have the Spirit nothing can hinder them from a title to the 〈◊〉 ater and if they have only a title to the water of the Sacrament then they shall receive the promise of the Holy Spirit the benefits of the Sacrament else their priviledge is none at all but a dish of cold water which every Village-Nurse can provide for her new-born babe 20. But it is in our case as it was with the Jews Children Our Children are a holy seed for if it were not so with Christianity how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity by telling them the Promise was to them and their Children For if our Children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness and yet their Children were holy it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue than to have called them to the Christian Church Either therefore 1. there is some Holiness in a reasonable nature which is not from the Spirit of Holiness or else 2. our Children do receive the Holy Spirit because they are holy or if they be not holy they are in worse condition under Christ than under Moses or if none of all this be true then our Children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized 21. And indeed if the Christian 〈◊〉 whose Children are circumcised and made partakers of the same Promises and Title and Inheritance and Sacraments which themselves had at their Conversion to the Faith of Christ had seen their Children now shut out from these new Sacraments it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a strom greater than could easily have been suppressed since about their Circumcisions they 〈◊〉 raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations And there had been great reason to look for a storm for their Children were circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These Children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Law of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal Ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters 22. To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christ's Ascension and S. Mark' s Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal By the Analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions Whence did they prove their Articles They only appealed to the Old Testament and only added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our Blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no-where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 23. Seventhly That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of Grace and Infants have an equal necessity as being liable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner than men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pitied and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 24. Eightly And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relie upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of Salvation save only we are to add this that because of this law since Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplied but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore Children must be put into the state of Grace or they shall dwell for ever where God's face does never shine Now there are but two ways of being put into the state of Grace and Salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the Holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to Heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither
satisfie his curiosity but is certain never to enter that way It is like enquiring into fortunes concerning which Phavorinus the Philosopher spake not unhandsomely They that foretell events of destiny and secret providence either foretell sad things or prosperous If they promise prosperous and deceive you are made miserable by a vain speculation If they threaten ill fortune and say false thou art made wretched by a false fear But if they foretell adversity and say true thou art made miserable by thy own apprehension before thou art so by destiny and many times the fear is worse than the evil feared But if they promise felicities and promise truly what shall come to pass then thou shalt be wearied by an impatience and a suspended hope and thy hope shall ravish and deflower the joys of thy possession Much of it is hugely applicable to the present Question and our Blessed Lord when he was petitioned that he would grant to the two sons of Zebedee that they might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left in his Kingdom rejected their desire and only promised them what concerned their duty and their suffering referring them to that and leaving the final event of men to the disposition of his Father This is the great Secret of the Kingdom which God hath locked up and sealed with the counsels of Eternity The sure foundation of God standeth having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his This seal shall never be broken up till the great day of Christ in the mean time the Divine knowledge is the only 〈◊〉 of the final sentences and this way of God is unsearchable and past finding out And therefore if we be solicitous and curious to know what God in the counsels of Eternity hath decreed concerning us he hath in two fair Tables described all those sentences from whence we must take accounts the revelations of Scripture and the book of Conscience The first recites the Law and the conditions the other gives in evidence the first is clear evident and conspicuous the other when it is written with large characters may also be discerned but there are many little accents periods distinctions and little significations of actions which either are there written in water or fullied over with carelesness or blotted with forgetfulness or not legible by ignorance or misconstrued by interest and partiality that it will be extremely difficult to read the hand upon the wall or to copy out one line of the eternal sentence And therefore excellent was the counsel of the Son of Sirach 〈◊〉 not out the things that are 〈◊〉 hard for thee 〈◊〉 search the things that are above thy strength 〈◊〉 what is 〈◊〉 thee think thereupon with reverence for it is not 〈◊〉 for thee 〈◊〉 see with thine eyes the things that are in secret For whatsoever God hath revealed in general concerning Election it concerns all persons within the pale of Christianity He hath conveyed notice to all Christian people that they are the sons of God that they are the 〈◊〉 of Eternity coheirs 〈◊〉 Christ partakers of the Divine nature meaning that such they are by the design of God and the purposes of the manifestation of his Son The Election 〈◊〉 God is disputed in Scripture to be an act of God separating whole Nations and rejecting others in each of which many particular instances there were contrary to the general and universal purpose and of the elect nations many particulars perished and many of the rejected people sate down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven and to those persons to whom God was more particular and was pleased to shew the scrowls of his eternal counsels and to reveal their particular Elections as he did to the twelve Apostles he shewed them wrapped up and 〈◊〉 and to take off their confidences or presumptions he gave probation in one instance that those scrowls may be cancelled that his purpose concerning particulars may be altered by us and 〈◊〉 that he did not discover the bottom of the Abysse but some purposes of special grace and 〈◊〉 design But his peremptory final 〈◊〉 Decree he keeps in the cabinets of the eternal ages never to be unlocked till the Angel of the Covenant shall declare the unalterable universal Sentence 3. But as we take the measure of the course of the Sun by the dimensions of the shadows made by our own bodies or our own instruments so must we take the measures of Eternity by the span of a man's hand and guess at what God decrees of us by considering how our relations and endearments are to him And it is observable that all the confidences which the Spirit of God hath created in the Elect are built upon Duty and stand or fall according to the strength or weakness of such supporters We know we are translated from death to life by our love unto the Brethren meaning that the performance of our duty is the best consignation to Eternity and the only testimony God gives us of our Election And therefore we are to make our judgments accordingly And here I consider that there is no state of a Christian in which by virtue of the Covenant of the Gospel it is effectively and fully declared that his sins are actually pardoned but only in Baptism at our first coming to Christ when he redeems us from our 〈◊〉 conversation when he makes us become Sons of God when he justifies us 〈◊〉 by his grace when we are purified by Faith when we make a Covenant with Christ to live 〈◊〉 ever according to his Laws And this I shall suppose I have already proved and explicated in the Discourse of Repentance So that whoever is certain he hath not offended God since that time and in nothing transgresseth the Laws of Christianity he is certain that he actually remains in the state of Baptismal purity but it is too certain that this certainty remains not long but we commonly throw some dirt into our waters of Baptism and stain our white robe which we then put on 4. But then because our restitution to this state is a thing that consists of so many parts is so divisible various and uncertain whether it be arrived to the degree of Innocence and our Innocence consists in a Mathematical point and is not capable of degrees any more than Unity because one stain destroys our being innocent it is therefore a very difficult matter to say that we have done all our duty towards our restitution to Baptismal grace and if we have not done all that we can do it is harder to say that God hath accepted that which is less than the conditions we entred into when we received the great Justification and Pardon of sins We all know we do less than our duty and we hope that God makes abatements for humane infirmities but we have but a few rules to judge by and they not infallible in themselves and we yet
theirs earnestly pressing and perswading the Pastors and Governours of it To feed the flock of God To take upon them the Rule and Inspection of it freely and willingly not out of a sinister end merely of gaining advantages to themselves but out of a sincere design of doing good to Souls that they would treat them mildly and gently and be themselves examples of Piety and Religion to them as the best way to make their Ministery successful and effectual And because he could not be always present to teach and warn men he ceased not by Letters to stir up their minds to the remembrance and practice of what they had been taught A course he tells them which he was resolved to hold as long as he lived as thinking it meet while he was in this Tabernacle to stir them up by putting them in mind of these things that so they might be able after his decease to have them always in remembrance And this may lead us to the consideration of those Writings which he left behind him for the benefit of the Church 5. NOW the Writings that entitle themselves to this Apostle were either genuine or supposititious The genuine Writings are his two Epistles which make up part of the Sacred Canon For the first of them no certain account can be had when it was written Though Baronius and most Writers commonly assign it to the year of Christ Forty Four But this cannot be Peter not being at Rome from whence it is supposed to have been written at that time as we shall see anon He wrote it to the Jewish Converts dispersed through Pontus Galatia and the Countries thereabouts chiefly upon the occasion of that persecution which had been raised at Jerusalem And accordingly the main design of it is to confirm and comfort them under their present sufferings and persecutions and to direct and instruct them how to carry themselves in the several states and relations both of the Civil and the Christian life For the place whence it was written 't is expresly dated from Babylon But what or where this Babylon is is not so easie to determine Some think it was Babylon in Egypt and probably 〈◊〉 and that there Peter preached the Gospel Others will have it to have been Babylon the Ancient Metropolis of Assyria and where great numbers of Jews dwelt ever since the times of their Captivities But we need not send Peter on so long an Errand if we embrace the Notion of a Learned man who by Babylon will figuratively understand Jerusalem no longer now the holy City but a kind of spiritual Babylon in which the Church of God did at this time groan under great servitude and captivity And this Notion of the Word he endeavours to make good by calling in to his assistance two of the Ancient Fathers who so understand that of the Prophet We have healed Babylon but she was not healed Where the Prophet say they by Babylon means Jerusalem as differing nothing from the wickedness of the Nations nor conforming it self to the Law of God But generally the Writers of the Romish Church and the more moderate of the Reformed party acquiescing herein in the Judgment of Antiquity by Babylon understand Rome And so 't is plain S. John calls it in his Revelation either from its conformity in power and greatness to that ancient City or from that great Idolatry which at this time reign'd in Rome And so we may suppose S. Peter to have written it from Rome not long after his coming thither though the precise time be not exactly known 6. AS for the Second Epistle it was not accounted of old of equal value and authority with the First and therefore for some Ages not taken into the Sacred Canon as is expresly affirmed by 〈◊〉 and many of the Ancients before him The Ancient Syriack Church did not receive it and accordingly it is not to be found in their ancient Copies of the New Testament Yea those of that Church at this day do not own it as Canonical but only read it privately as we do the Apocryphal Books The greatest exception that I can find against it was the difference of its style from the other Epistle and therefore it was presumed that they were not both written by the same hand But S. 〈◊〉 who tells us the objection does elsewhere himself return the answer That the difference in the style and manner of writing might very well arise from hence that S. Peter according to his different circumstances and the necessity of affairs was forced to use several Amanuenses and Interpreters sometimes S. Mark and after his departure some other person which might justly occasion a difference in the style and character of these 〈◊〉 Not to say that the same person may vastly alter and vary his style according to the times when or the persons to whom or the subjects about which he writes or the temper and disposition he is in at the time of writing or the care that is used in doing it Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy and in his Book of Lamentations between S. John's in his Gospel his 〈◊〉 and Apocalypse How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles in some more lofty and elegant in others more rough and harsh Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers too obvious to need insisting on in this place The Learned Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and that the word Peter was inserted into the Title by another hand But as a Judicious person of our own observes these were but his Posthume Annotations published by others and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription as it is in our Books And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it It bears his name in the Front and Title yea somewhat more expresly than the former which has only one this both his Names There 's a passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him When he tells us that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount When he received from God the Father honour and glory Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven from the excellent glory This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This evidently refers to Christs Tranfiguration where none were present but Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle Besides that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles as it were easie to show in particular instances Add to this that
S. Jude speaking of the Scoffers who should come in the last time walking after their own ungodly lusts cites this as that which had been before spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein he plainly quotes the words of this Second Epistle of Peter affirming That there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts And that this does agree to Peter will further appear by this that he tells us of these Scoffers that should come in the last days that is before the destruction of Jerusalem as that phrase is often used in the New Testament that they should say Where is the promise of his coming Which clearly respects their making light of those threatnings of our Lord whereby he had foretold that he would shortly come in Judgment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation This he now puts them in mind of as what probably he had before told them of 〈◊〉 vocc when he was amongst them For so we find he did elsewhere Lactantius assuring us That amongst many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul preached at Rome and lest upon Record this was one That within a short time God would send a Prince who should destroy the Jews and lay their Cities level with the ground straitly besiege them destroy them with Famine so that they should feed upon one another That their Wives and Daughters should be ravished and their Childrens brains dasht out before their faces that all things should be laid waste by Fire and Sword and themselves perpetually banished from their own Countrey and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent and dear Son of God All which as he observes came to pass soon after their death when 〈◊〉 came upon the Jews and extinguished both their Name and Nation And what Peter here foretold at Rome we need not question but he had done before to those Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle Wherein he especially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous principles wherewith many and especially the followers of Simon Magus began to insect the Church of Christ. And this but a little time before his death as appears from that passage in it where he tells them That he knew he must shortly put off his earthly Tabernacle 7. BESIDES these Divine Epistles there were other supposititious writings which in the first Ages were fathered upon S. Peter Such was the Book called his Acts mentioned by Origen Eusebius and others but rejected by them Such was his Gospel which probably at first was nothing else but the Gospel written by S. Mark dictated to him as is generally thought by S. Peter and therefore as S. 〈◊〉 tells us said to be his Though in the next Age there appeared a Book under that Title mentioned by Serapion Bishop of Antioch and by him at 〈◊〉 suffered to be read in the Church but afterwards upon a more careful perusal of it he rejected it as Apocryphal as it was by others after him Another was the Book stiled His Preaching mentioned and quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Origen but not acknowledged by them to be Genuine Nay expresly said to have been forged by Hereticks by an ancient Author contemporary with S. Cyprian The next was his Apocalypse or Revelation rejected as Sozomen tells us by the 〈◊〉 as Spurious but yet read in some Churches in Palestine in his time The last was the Book called His Judgment which probably was the same with that called Hermes or Pastor a Book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity and which as Eusebius tells us was not only frequently cited by the Ancients but also publickly read in Churches 8. WE shall conclude this Section by considering Peter with respect to his several Relations That he was married is unquestionable the Sacred History mentioning his Wives Mother his Wife might we believe Metaphrastes being the Daughter of Aristobulus Brother to Barnabas the Apostle And though S. Hierom would perswade us that he left her behind him together with his Nets when he forsook all to follow Christ yet we know that Father too well to be over-confident upon his word in a case of Marriage or Single life wherein he is not over-scrupulous sometimes to strain a point to make his opinion more fair and plausible The best is we have an infallible Authority which plainly intimates the contrary the testimony of S. Paul who tells us of Cephas that he led about a Wife a Sister along with him who for the most part mutually cohabited lived together for ought that can be proved to the contrary Clemens Alexandrinus gives us this account though he tells us not the time or place That Peter seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour and that she was now returning home encouraging and earnestly exhorting her and calling her by her Name bad her to be mindful of our Lord. Such says he was the Wedlock of that blessed couple and the perfect disposition and agreement in those things that were dearest to them By her he is said to have had a Daughter called Petronilla Metaphrastes adds a Son how truly I know not This only is certain that S. Clemens of Alexandria reckons Peter for one of the Apostles that was Married and had Children And surely he who was so good a man and so good an Apostle was as good in the relation both of an Husband and a Father SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome Peter's being at Rome granted in general The account of it given by Baronius and the Writers of that Church rejected and disproved No foundation for it in the History of the Apostolick Acts. No mention of it in S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans No news of his being there at S. Paul's coming to Rome nor intimation of any such thing in the several Epistles which S. Paul wrote from thence S. Peter's first being at Rome inconsistent with the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem And with an Ancient Tradition that the Apostles were commanded to stay Twelve years in Judaea after Christ's death Apassage out of Clemens Alexandrinus noted and corrected to that purpose Difference among the 〈◊〉 of the Romish Church in their Accounts Peter's being XXV years Bishop of Rome no solid foundation for it in Antiquity The Planting and Governing that Church equally attributed to Peter and Paul S. Peter when probably came to Rome Different dates of his Martyrdom assigned by the Ancients A probable account given of it 1. THOUGH it be not my purpose to swim against the Stream and Current of Antiquity in denying S. Peter to have been at Rome an Assertion easilier perplexed and intangled than confuted and disproved yet may we grant the main without doing any great service to that Church there
attain to though otherwise sunk into the deepest degeneracy and over-spread with the grossest darkness he every where affording such palpable evidences of his own being and providence that he seemed to stand near and touch us It being intirely from him that we derive our life motion and subsistence A thing acknowledged even by their own Poct that We also are his Off-spring If therefore God was our Creator it was highly unreasonable to think that we could make any Image or Representation of Him That it was too long already that the Divine patience had born with the manners of Men and suffered them to go on in their blind Idolatries that now he expected a general repentance and reformation from the World especially having by the publishing of his Gospel put out of all dispute the case of a future judgment and particularly appointed the Holy Jesus to be the Person that should sentence and judge the World By whose Resurrection he had given sufficient evidence and assurance of it No sooner had he mentioned the Resurrection but some of the Philosophers no doubt Epicureans who were wont to laugh at the notion of a future state mocked and derided him others more gravely answered that they would hear him again concerning this matter But his discourse however scorned and slighted did not wholly want its desired effect and that upon some of the greatest quality and rank among them In the number of whom was Dionysius one of the grave Senators and Judges of the Areopagus and Damaris whom the Ancients not improbably make his Wife 8. THIS Dionysius was bred at Athens in all the learned Arts and Sciences at sive and twenty Years of Age he is said to have travelled into Egypt to perfect himself in the study of Astrology for which that Nation had the credit and renown Here beholding the miraculous Eclipse that was at the time of our Saviour's Passion he concluded that some great accident must needs be coming upon the World Returning to Athens he became one of the Senators of the Arcopagus disputed with S. Paul and was by him converted from his Errours and Idolatry and being thoroughly instructed was by him as the Ancients inform us made the first Bishop of Athens As for those that tell us that he went afterwards into France by the direction of Clemens of Rome planted Christianity at and became Bishop of Paris of his suffering Martyrdom there under Domitian his carrying his Head for the space of two Miles in his Hand after it had been cut off and the rest of his Miracles done before and after his Death I have as little leisure to enquire into them as I have faith to believe them Indeed the foundation of all is justly denied viz. that ever he was there a thing never heard of till the times of Charles the Great though since that Volumes have been written of this controversie both heretofore and of later times among which J. Sirmondus the Jesuit and Monsieur Launoy one of the learned Doctors of the Sorbon have unanswerably proved the Athenian and Parisian Dionysius to be distinct Persons For the Books that go under his name M. Daillé has sufficiently evinced them to 〈◊〉 of a date many Hundred Years younger than S. Denys though I doubt not but they may claim a greater Antiquity than what he allows them But whoever was their Author I am sure Suidas has over-stretched the praise of them beyond all proportion when he gives them this character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that whoever considers the elegancy of his discourses and the profoundness of his notions and speculations must needs conclude that they are not the issue of any humane understanding but of some Divine and Immaterial Power But to return to our Apostle SECT IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus S. Paul's arrival at Corinth The opposition made by the Jews The success of his Preaching upon others His first Epistle to the Thessalonians when written His Arraignment before Gallio The second Epistle to the Thessalonians and the design of it S. Paul's voyage to Jerusalem His coming to Ephesus Disciples baptized into John's Baptism S. Paul's preaching at Ephesus and the Miracles wrought by him Ephesus noted for the study of Magick Jews eminently versed in Charms and Inchantments The Original of the Mystery whence pretended to have been derived The ill attempt of the Sons of Sceva to dipossess Daemons in the name of Christ. S. Paul's doctrine greatly successful upon this sort of men Books of Magick forbidden by the Roman Laws S. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians why and when written Diana's Temple at Ephesus and its great stateliness and magnificence The mutiny against S. Paul raised by Demetrius and his party S. Paul's first Fpistle to the Corinthians upon what occasion written His Epistle to Titus Apollonius Tyanaeus whether at Ephesus at the same time with S. Paul His Miracles pretended to be done in that City 1. AFTER his departure from Athens he went to Corinth the Metropolis of Greece and the residence of the Proconsul of Achaia where he found Aquila and Priscilla lately come from Italy banished out of Rome by the Decree of Claudius And they being of the same trade and profession wherein he had been educated in his youth he wrought together with them lest he should be unnecessarily burdensom unto any which for the same reason he did in some other places Hither after some time Silas and Timothy came to him In the Synagogue he frequently disputed with the Jews and Proselytes reasoning and proving that Jesus was the true Messiah They according to the nature of the men made head and opposed him and what they could not conquer by argument and sorce of reason they endeavoured to carry by noise and clamour mixed with blasphemies and revilings the last refuges of an impotent and baffled cause Whereat to testifie his resentment he shook his Garments and told them since he saw them resolved to pull down vengeance and destruction upon their own heads he for his part was guiltless and innocent and would henceforth address himself unto the Gentiles Accordingly he left them and went into the house of Justus a religious Proselyte where by his preaching and the many miracles which he wrought he converted great numbers to the Faith Amongst which were Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue Gaius and Stephanus who together with their Families embraced the doctrine of the Gospel and were baptized into the Christian Faith But the constant returns of malice and ingratitude are enough to tire the largest charity and cool the most generous resolution therefore that the Apostle might not be discouraged by the restless attempts and machinations of his enemies our Lord appeared to him in a Vision told him that not withstanding the bad success he had hitherto met with there was a great harvest to be gathered in that place that he should not be afraid of his enemies but go
that he was so infinitely vigilant against Hereticks and Seducers countermining their artifices antidoting against the poison of their errors and shunning all communion and conversation with their persons Going along with some of his friends at Ephesus to the Bath whither he used frequently to resort and the ruines whereof of Porphyry not far from the place where stood the famous Temple of Diana as a late eye-witness informs us are still shewed at this day he enquired of the servant that waited there who was within the servant told him Cerinthus Epiphanius says it was Ebion and 't is not improbable that they might be both there which the Apostle no sooner understood but in great abhorrency he turned back Let 's be gon my brethren said he and make haste from this place lest the Bath wherein there is such an Heretick as Cerinthus the great enemy of the truth fall upon our heads This account Irenaeus delivers from Polycarp S. John's own Scholar and Disciple This Cerinthus was a man of loose and pernicious principles endeavouring to corrupt Christianity with many damnable Errors To make himself more considerable he struck in with the Jewish Converts and made a bustle in that great controversie at Jerusalem about Circumcision and the observation of the Law of Moses But his usual haunt was Asia where amongst other things he openly denied Christ's Resurrection affirmed the World to have been made by Angels broaching unheard of Dogmata and pretending them to have been communicated to him by Angels venting Revelations composed by himself as a great Apostle affirming that after the Resurrection the reign of Christ would commence here upon Earth and that men living again at Jerusalem should for the space of a thousand years enjoy all manner of sensual pleasures and delights hoping by this fools Paradise that he should tempt men of loose and brutish minds over to his party Much of the same stamp was Ebion though in some principles differing from him as error agrees with it self as little as with truth who held that the holy Jesus was a mere and a mean man begotten by Joseph of Mary his Wife and that the observance of the Mosaick Rites and Laws was necessary to Salvation And because they saw S. Paul stand so full in their way they reproached him as an Apostate from his Religion and rejected his Epistles owning none but S. Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew having little or no value for the rest the Sabbath and Jewish Rites they observed with the Jews and on the Lord's day celebrated the memory of our Lord's Resurrection 〈◊〉 cording to the custom and practice of the Christians 13. BESIDES these there was another sort of Hereticks that infested the Church in S. John's time the Nicolaitans mentioned by him in his Revelation and whose doctrine our Lord is with a particular Emphasis there said to hate indeed a most wretched and brutish Sect generally supposed to derive their original from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons whom we read of 〈◊〉 the Acts whereof Glemens of Alexandria gives this probable account This Nicolas having a beautiful Wife and being reproved by the Apostles for being jealous of her to shew how far he was from it brought her forth and gave any that would leave to marry her affirming this to be suitable to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to abuse the flesh This speech he tell us was ascribed to S. Matthias who taught That we must fight with the flesh and abuse it and not allowing it any thing for pleasure encrease the Soul by faith and knowledge These words and actions of his his disciples and followers misunderstanding and perverting things to the worst sence imaginable began to let loose the reins and henceforwards to give themselves over to the greatest filthiness the most shameless and impudent uncleanness throwing down all inclosures making the most promiscuous mixtures lawful and pleasure the ultimate end and happiness of Man Such were their principles such their practices whereas Nicolas their pretended Patron and Founder was says Clemens a sober and a temperate Man never making use of any but his own Wife by whom he had one Son and several Daughters who all liv'd in perpetual Virginity 14. THE last instance that we shall remark of our Apostles care for the good of the Church is the Writings which he left to Posterity Whereof the first in time though plac'd last is his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations written while consined in Patmos It was of old not only rejected by Hereticks but controverted by many of the Fathers themselves 〈◊〉 Bishop of Alexandria has a very large discourse concerning it he tells us that many plainly disowned this Book not only for the matter but the Author of it as being neither Apostle no nor any Holy or Ecclesiastical Person that Cerinthus prefixed S. John's name to it to give the more plausible title to his Dream of Christ's Reign upon Earth and that sensual and carnal state that should attend it that for his part he durst not reject it looking upon it as containing wise and admirable mysteries though he could not fathom and 〈◊〉 them that he did not measure them by his own line nor condemn but rather admire what he could not understand that he owned the Author to have been an holy and divinely-inspired Person but could not believe it to be S. John the Apostle and Evangelist neither stile matter nor method agreeing with his other Writings that in this he frequently names himself which he never does in any other that there were several Johns at that time and two buried at Fphesus the Apostle and another one of the Disciples that dwelt in Asia but which the Author of his Book he leaves uncertain But though doubted of by some it was entertained by the far greater part of the Ancients as the genuine work of our S. John Nor could the setting down his Name be any reasonable exception for whatever he might do in his other Writings especially his Gospel where it was less necessary Historical matters depending not so much upon his authority yet it was otherwise in Prophetick Revelations where the Person of the Revealer adds great weight and moment the reason why some of the Prophets under the Old Testament did so frequently set down their own Names The diversity of the stile is of no considerable value in this case it being no wonder if in arguments so vastly different the same Person do not always observe the same tenor and way of writing whereof there want not instances in some others of the Apostolick Order The truth is all circumstances concur to intitle our Apostle to be the Author of it his name frequently expressed its being written in the Island Patmos a circumstance not competible to any but S. John his stiling himself their Brother and Companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ his writing particular
Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia all planted or at least cultivated by him the doctrine in it suitable to the Apostolick spirit and temper evidently bearing witness in this case That which seems to have given ground to doubt concerning both its Author and authority was its being long before it was usually joyned with the other Books of the holy Canon for containing in it some passages directly levell'd at Rome the Seat of the Roman Empire others which might be thought to symbolize with some Jewish dreams and 〈◊〉 it might possibly seem fit to the prudence of those Times for a while to suppress it Nor is the conjecture of a learned Man to be despised who thinks that it might be intrusted in the keeping of John the Presbyter Scholar to our Apostle whence probably the report might arise that he who was only the Keeper was the Author of it 15. HIS Gospel succeeds written say some in Patmos and published at Ephesus but as Irenaeus and others more truly written by him after his return to Ephesus composed at the earnest intreaty and sollicitation of the Asian Bishops and Embassadors from several Churches in order whereunto he first caused them to proclaim a general Fast to seek the blessing of Heaven on so great and solemn an undertaking which being done he set about it And if we may believe the report of Gregory Bishop of Tours he tells us that upon a Hill near Ephesus there was a Proseucha or uncovered Oratory whither our Apostle used often to retire for Prayer and Contemplation and where he obtained of God that it might not Rain in that Place till he had finished his Gospel Nay he adds that even in his time no shower or storm ever came upon it Two causes especially contributed to the writing of it the one that he might obviate the early heresies of those times especially of Ebion Cerinthus and the rest of that crew who began openly to deny Christ's Divinity and that he had any existence before his Incarnation the reason why our Evangelist is so express and copious in that subject The other was that he might supply those passages of the Evangelical History which the rest of the Sacred Writers had omitted Collecting therefore the other three Evangelists he first set to his Seal ratifying the truth of them with his approbation and consent and then added his own Gospel to the rest principally insisting upon the Acts of Christ from the first commencing of his Ministery to the Death of John the Baptist wherein the others are most defective giving 〈◊〉 any account of the first Year of our Saviour's Ministry which therefore he made up in very large and particular Narrations He largely records as Nazianzen observes our Saviour's discourses but takes little notice of his Miracles probably because so fully and particularly related by the rest The subject of his writing is very sublime and mysterious mainly designing to prove Christ's Divinity eternal pre-existence creating of the World c. Upon which account Theodoret stiles his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Theology which humane understandings can never fully penetrate and find out Thence generally by the Ancients he is resembled to an Eagle soaring aloft within the Clouds whither the weak eye of Man was unable to follow him hence peculiarly honoured with the title of The Divine as if due to none but him at least to him in a more eminent and extraordinary manner Nay the very Gentile-Philosophers themselves could not but admire his Writings Witness Amelius the famous Platonist and Regent of Porphyries School at Alexandria who quoting a passage out of the beginning of S. John's Gospel sware by Jupiter that this Barbarian so the proud Greeks counted and called all that differed from them had hit upon the right notion when he affirmed that the Word that made all things was in the beginning and in place of prime dignity and authority with God and was that God that created all things in whom every thing that was made had according to its nature its life and being that he was incarnate and clothed with a body wherein he manifested the glory and magnificence of his nature that after his death he returned to the repossession of Divinity and became the same God which he was before his assuming a body and taking the humane nature and flesh upon him I have no more to observe but that his Gospel was afterwards translated into Hebrew and kept by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among their secret Archives and Records in their Treasury at Tiberias where a Copy of it was found by one Joseph a Jew afterwards converted and whom 〈◊〉 the Great advanced to the honour of a Count of the Empire who breaking open the Treasury though he missed of mony found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Books beyond all Treasure S. Matthew and S. John's Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in Hebrew the reading whereof greatly contributed towards his Conversion 16. BESIDES these our Apostle wrote three Epistles the first whereof is Catholick calculated for all times and places containing most excellent rules for the conduct of the Christian life pressing to 〈◊〉 and purity of manners and not to rest in a naked and empty profession of Religion not to be led away with the crafty insinuations of Seducers antidoting Men against the poyson of the Gnostick-principles and practices to whom it is not to be doubted but that the Apostle had a more particular respect in this Epistle According to his wonted modesty he conceals his name it being of more concernment with 〈◊〉 Men what it is that is said than who it is that says it And this Epistle Eusebius tells us was universally received and never questioned by any anciently as appears 〈◊〉 S. Augustin inscribed to the Parthians though for what reason I am yet to learn unless as we hinted before it was because he himself had heretofore Preached in those Parts of the World The other two Epistles are but short and directed to particular Persons the one a Lady of honourable Quality the other the charitable and hospitable Gaius so kind a friend so courteous an entertainer of all indigent Christians These Epistles indeed were not of old admitted into the Canon nor are owned by the Church in Syria at this Day ascribed by many to the younger John Disciple to our Apostle But there is no just cause to question who was their Father seeing both the Doctrine phrase and design of them do sufficiently challenge our Apostle for their Author These are all the Books wherein it pleased the Holy Spirit to make use of S. John for its Pen man and Secretary in the composure whereof though his stile and character be not florid and elegant yet is it grave and simple short and perspicuous Dionysius of Alexandria tells us that in his Gospel and first Epistle his phrase is more neat and
both crowned with Martyrdom which Baronius himself confesses to be founded upon no better authority than the Passions of the Apostles a Book which at every turn he rejects as trifling and impertinent as false and fabulous But however wide is the mistake of those who confound our Apostle with Symeon the son of Cleophas successor to S. James the Just in the See of Jerusalem who was crucified in the hundred and twentieth year of his Age in the persecution under Trajan The different character of their persons and the account both of their Acts and Martyrdoms being sufficiently distinguished in the writings of the Church The End of S. Simon' s Life THE LIFE OF S. JUDE St Jude Maith 15. 55. Is not this the Carpenter's son are not his brethren James Joses Simon JUDAS Luk. 6. 16. Judas the Brother of James His Martyrdom Having preached y e Gospel in Mesopotamia he went into Persia where after he had gained great numbers to Christianity he suffered martyrdom Martyrol Rom. Oct. 28. The several names attributed to him in the Gospel Thaddaeus whence The custom of the Jews to alter their names when bearing affinity with the great name Jehova The name Judas why distasteful to the Apostles Lebbaeus whence derived His Parentage and Relation to our Lord. The Question put by him to Christ. Whether the same with Thaddaeus sent to Edessa In what places he preached His death His married condition The story of his Grandchildren brought before Domitian His Epistle and why questioned of old It s Canonicalness vindicated The Book of Enoch and what its authority The contention between Michael and the Devil about Moses his Body whence borrowed S. Jude proved to be the Author of this Epistle Grotius his conceit of its being written by a younger Jude rejected It s affinity with the second Epistle of S. Peter The design of it 1. THERE are three several names by which this Apostle is described in the History of the Gospel Jude Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus it being usual in the holy Volumes for the same person to have more proper names than one For the first it was a name common amongst the Jews recommended to them as being the name of one of the great Patriarchs of their Nation This name he seems to have changed afterwards for Thaddaeus a word springing from the same root and of the very same import and signification which might arise from a double cause Partly from the superstitious veneration which the Jews had for the name Jehova the Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or name consisting of four letters which they held unlawful to be pronounced by any but the High-Priest and not by him neither but at the most solemn times Hence it was that when any man had a name wherein there was the major part of the letters of this ineffable title and such was Jehudah or Juda they would not rashly pronounce it in common usage but chose rather to mould it into another like it and of the same importance or that which had a near affinity and resemblance with it Partly from a particular dislike of the name of Judas among the Apostles the bloudy and treasonable practises of Judas Iscariot having rendred that name very odious and detestable to them To prevent therefore all possibility of mistake and that they might not confound the righteous with the wicked S. Matthew and Mark never call him by this but by some other name as no question for the same reason he both stiles himself and is frequently called by others Judas the brother of James and that this was one great design of it the Evangelist plainly intimates when speaking of him he says Judas not Iscariot For his name Lebbaeus it seems to have been derived either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heart whence S. Hierom renders it Corculum probably to denote his wisdom and prudence or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lion and therein to have respect to old Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah That he should be as a Lion an old Lion and as a Lions whelp which probably might have a main stroke in fastning this name upon S. Jude From this Patriarchal prophecy we are told that one of the Schools or Synagogues of Learned men among the Jews who to avoid confusion were wont to distinguish themselves by different appellations took occasion to denominate themselves Labii as accounting themselves the Scholars and descendents of this Lion-like son of Jacob and that S. Jude was of this society and because of his eminency among them retained the title of Labius or as it was corruptly pronounced Lebbaeus I confess I should have thought the conjecture of a Learned man very probable that he might have derived this name from the place of his nativity as being born at Lebba a Town which he tells us Pliny speaks of in the Province of Galilee not far from Carmel but that it is not Lebba but Jebba in all copies of Pliny that I have seen But let the Reader please himself in which conjecture he likes best 2. FOR his Descent and Parentage he was of our Lord's kindred Nicephorus truly making him the son of Joseph and brother to James Bishop of Jerusalem that there was a Jude one of the number is very evident Are not his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas which makes me the more to wonder at Scaliger who so confidently denies that any of the Evangelists ever mention a Jude the brother of our Lord. S. Hierom seems often to confound him with Simon the Zealot whose title he ascribes to him though second thoughts set him right as indeed common advertency could do no less so plain is the account which the Evangelists give of this matter When called to the Discipleship we find not as not meeting with him till we find him enumerated in the Catalogue of Apostles nor is any thing particularly recorded of him afterwards more than one question that he propounded to our Saviour who having told them what great things he and his Father would do and what particular manifestations after his Resurrection he would make of himself to his sincere disciples and followers S. Jude whose thoughts as well as the rest were taken up with the expectations of a temporal Kingdom of the Messiah not knowing how this could consist with the publick solemnity of that glorious state they looked for asked him what was the reason that he would manifest himself to them and not to the World Our Lord replied that the World was not capable of these Divine manifestations as being a stranger and an enemy to what should fit them for fellowship with Heaven that they were only good men persons of a Divine temper of mind and religious observers of his Laws and Will whom God would honour with these familiar converses and admit to such particular acts of grace and favour 3. EUSEBIUS relates that soon after our Lord's Ascension
us also that they took very little care of the Body perfecting their minds by Precepts of Wisdom and Religion the day they intirely spent in Pious and Divine Meditations in reading and expounding the Law and the Prophets and the Holy Volumes of the ancient Founders of their Sect and in singing Hymns to the honour of their Maker absolutely temperate and abstemious neither eating nor drinking till Night the only time they thought fit to refresh and regard the body some of them out of an insatiable desire of growing in knowledge and vertue fasting many days together What Diet they had was very plain and simple sufficient only to provide against hunger and thirst a little Bread Salt and Water being their constant bill of fare their clothes were as mean as their food designed only as a present security against cold and nakedness And this not only the case of men but of pious and devout Women that lived though separately among them that they religiously observed every Seventh Day and especially the preparatory Week to the great solemnity which they kept with all expressions of a more severe abstinence and devotion This and much more he has in that Tract concerning them 3. THESE excellent Persons 〈◊〉 peremptorily affirms to have been Christians converted and brought under these admirable Rules and Institutions of Life by S. Mark at his coming hither accommodating all passages to the Manners and Discipline of Christians followed herein by Epiphanius Hierom and others of old as by Baronius and some others of later time and this so far taken for granted that many have hence fetched the rise of Monasteries and Religious Orders among Christians But whoever seriously and impartially considers Philo's account will plainly find that he intends it of Jews and Professors of the Mosaick Religion though whether Essenes or of some other particular Sect among them I stand not to determine That they were not Christians is evident besides that Philo gives not the least intimation of it partly because it is improbable that Philo being a Jew should give so great a character and commendation of Christians so hateful to the Jews at that time in all places of the World partly in that Philo speaks of them as an Institution of some considerable standing whereas Christians had but lately appeared in the World and were later come into Egypt partly because many parts of Philo's account does no way suit with the state and manners of Christians at that time as that they withdrew themselves from publick converse and all affairs of civil life which Christians never did but when forced by violent Persecutions for ordinarily as Justin Martyr and Tertullian tell us they promiscuously dwelt in Towns and Cities plowed their Lands and followed their Trades ate and drank and were clothed and habited like other men So when he says that besides the Books of Moses and the Prophets they had the Writings of the Ancient Authours of their Sect and Institution this cannot be meant of Christians for though Eusebius would understand it of the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles yet besides that there were few of them published when Philo wrote this discourse they were however of too late an edition to come under the character of ancient Authours Not to say that some of their Rites and Customes were such as the Christians of those days were meer strangers to not taken up by the Christian Church till many Years and some of them not till some Ages after Nay some of them never used by any of the Primitive Christians such were their religious dances which they had at their Festival Solemnities especially that great one which they held at the end of every Seven Weeks when their entertainment being ended they all rose up the Men in one Company and the Women in another dancing with various measures and motions each Company singing Divine Hymns and Songs and having a Precentor going before them now one singing and anon another till in the conclusion they joyned in one common chorus in imitation of the triumphant Song sung by Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red-Sea To all which let me add what a Learned Man has observed that the Essenes if Philo means them were great Physicians thence probably called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Healers though Philo who is apt to turn all things into Allegory refers it only to their curing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men infected and over-run with difficult and desperate distempers created by pleasures and extravagant appetites and a long train of other lusts and passions Josephus reporting of them that they accurately study the Writings of the Ancients excerping thence whatever is conducive either to Soul or Body and that for the curing of Diseases they diligently enquired into the Vertues of Roots and Stones that were most proper to drive away Distempers An Account no ways agreeing with the Christians of those times who miraculously cured Diseases without the Arts of Physick or any other Preparations than calling the Name of Christ over the afflicted Person Doubtless that which led Euscbius into the mistake was the conformity that he observed between the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in and before his time who entred upon a more strict and severe course of life and these Therapeutae described by Philo an ordinary fancy being able to draw a fair parallel between them and so it was but removing them some Ages higher and imagining them to have been converted and founded by S. Mark and the work was done Indeed it is not to be doubted but that Persons educated under these excellent rules and methods of life were more than ordinarily prepared for the reception of Christianity between which and their Principles and Rules of Life there was so great an affinity and agreement which must needs render our Evangelists success great in those Parts and open the way for men to come flocking over to the Faith 4. S. MARK did not confine his Preaching to Alexandria and the Oriental Parts of Egypt but removed Westmard to the Parts of Libya going thorough the Countries of Marmarica Pentapolis and others thereabouts where though the People were both barbarous in their manners and idolatrous in their worship yet by his Preaching and Miracles he made way for the entertainment of the Gospel and left them not till he had not only gained them to but confirmed them in the profession of it Returning to Alexandria he preached freely and ordered and disposed the affairs of the Church and wisely provided for succession by constituting Governors and Pastors of it But the restless enemy of the souls of Men would not long suffer him to be quiet it was the time of Easter at what time the great Solemnities of Scrapis hapned to be celebrated when the minds of the People being excited to a passionate vindication of the honour of their Idol broke in upon S. Mark then
engaged in the solemn celebration of Divine worship and binding his Feet with Cords dragged him through the streets and the most craggy places to the Bucelus a Precipice near the Sea and for that Night thrust him into Prison where his Soul was by a Divine Vision erected and encouraged under the ruines of his shattered Body Early the next Morning the Tragedy began again dragging him about in the same manner till his Flesh being raked off and his Blood run out his spirits failed and he expired But their malice died not with him Metaphrastes adds that they burnt his Body whose Bones and Ashes the Christians there decently intombed near the place where he was wont to Preach His Body at least the remains of it were afterwards with great pomp removed from Alexandria to Venice where they are religiously honoured and he adopted as the Tutelar Saint and Patron of that State and one of the richest and stateliest Churches erected to his Memory that the World can boast of at this Day He suffered in the Month Pharmuthi on the XXV of April though the certain Year of his Martyrdom is not precisely determined by the Ancients Kirstenius out of the Arabick Memoires of his Life says it was in the Fourteenth or the last Year of Claudius S. Hierom places it in the Eighth of Nero. But extravagantly wide is Dorotheus his computation who makes him to suffer in the time of Trajan with as much truth as Nicephorus on the other hand affirms him to have come into Egypt in the Reign of Tiberius If in so great variety of Opinions I may interpose my conjecture I should reckon him to have suffered about the end of Nero's Reign For supposing him to have come with S. Peter to Rome about the Fifth or Sixth Year of Nero he might thence be dispatched to Alexandria and spend the residue of his Life and of that Emperor's Reign in planting Christianity in those parts of the World Sure I am that Irenaeus reports S. Mark to have out-lived Peter and Paul and that after their decease he composed his Gospel out of those things which he had heard Peter preach But whatever becomes of that it is evident that Irenaeus supposed whose supposition certainly was not founded upon meer fancy and conjecture that S. Mark for some considerable time survived the Martyrdom of those two great Apostles A passage that so troubled Christophorson one of those who in these later Ages first translated Eusebius into Latin because crossing the accounts of their Writers in this matter that he chose rather to expunge the word decease and substitute another of a quite different sence expresly contrary to the faith of all ancient Copies and to the most ancient Version of Irenaeus it self But to return S. Mark as to his Person was of a middle size and stature his Nose long his Eye brows turning back his Eyes graceful and amiable his Head bald his Beard prolix and gray his Gate quick the constitution of his Body strong and healthful 5. HIS Gospel the only Book he left behind him was as before we observed written at the intreaty of the Converts at Rome who not content to have heard Peter preach pressed S. Mark his Disciple that he would commit to Writing an Historical account of what he had delivered to them which he performed with no less faithfulness than brevity all which S. Peter perused ratified with his Authority and commanded to be publickly read in their Religious Assemblies And though as we noted but now Irenaeus seems to intimate that it was written after Peter's death yet all that can be inferred hence will be what in it self is a matter of no great moment and importance that the Ancients were not agreed in assigning the exact time when the several Gospels were published to the World It was frequently stiled S. Peter's Gospel not so much because dictated by him to S. Mark as because he principally composed it out of that account which S. Peter usually delivered in his Discourses to the People Which probably is the reason of what Chrysostome observes that in his stile and manner of expression he delights to imitate S. Peter representing much in a few words Though he commonly reduces the story of our Saviour's Acts into a narrower compass than S. Matthew yet want there not passages which he relates more largely than he The last Chapter of his Gospel at least part of it was as Hierom informs us wanting in all ancient Greek Copies rejected upon pretence of some disagreement with the other Gospels though as he there shews they are fairly consistent with each other His great impartiality in his Relations appears from hence that he is so far from concealing the shameful lapse and denial of Peter his dear Tutor and Master that he sets it down with some particular circumstances and aggravations which the other Evangelists take no notice of Some dispute has been made in what Language it was written whether in Greek or Latin That which seems to give most countenance to the Latin Original is the note that we find at the end of the Syriac Version of this Gospel where it is said that Mark preached and declared his Holy Gospel at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Roman or the Latin Tongue An evidence that with me would almost carry the force of a demonstration were I assured that this note is of equal value and authority with that Ancient Version generally supposed to come very few Centuries short of the Apostolick Age. But we know how usual it is for such additions to be made by some later hand And what credit is to be given to the subscriptions at the end of S. Paul's Epistles we have shewed elsewhere Besides that it is not here said that he wrote but that he Preached his Gospel at Rome in that Language The Advocates of the Romish Church plead that it 's very congruous and suitable that it should at first be consigned to Writing in that Language being principally designed for the use of the Christians at Rome An objection that will easily vanish when we consider that as the Convert Jewes there understood very little Latin so there were very few Romans that understood not Greek it being as appears from the Writers of that Age the gentile and fashionable Language of those Times Nor can any good reason be assigned why it should be more inconvenient for S. Mark to write his Gospel in Greek for the use of the Romans than that S. Paul should in the same Language write his Epistle to that Church The Original Greek Copy written with S. Mark' s own hand is said to be extant at Venice at this Day Written they tell us by him at Aquileia and thence after many Hundreds of Years translated to Venice where it is still preserved though the Letters so worn out with length of time that they are not capable of
being read A story which as I cannot absolutely disprove so am I not very forward to believe and that for more reasons than I think worth while to insist on in this place The End of S. Mark' s Life THE LIFE OF S. LUKE the Evangelist S. LUKE 2. COR. 8. 8. 19. The Brother whose praise is in y e Gospel throughout all y e Churches And not that onely but who was also chosen of y e Churches to travell with us St. Luke his Martyrdom Col. 4. 14. Luke the beloved Physician The brother whose Praise is in the Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 11. We are delivered unto death for Jesus sake Bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Antioch S. Luke's birth-place The fame and dignity of it His learned and liberal education His 〈◊〉 of Physick His skill in Painting S. Luke none of the Seventy Converted where and by whom His constant attendance upon S. Paul In what parts he principally exercised his Ministry The place and manner of his Death The translation of his Body to Constantinople His Writings Theophilus who His Gospel where written and upon what occasion How fitted for it The Acts of the Apostles written at Rome and when Why principally containing the Acts of S. Paul This Book why publickly read just after Easter in the Primitive Church S. Luke's polite and exact 〈◊〉 and way of writing above the rest 1. SAINT Luke was born at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a City celebrated for its extraordinary blessings and eminences the pleasantness of its situation the fertility of its soil the riches of its Traffick the wisdom of its Senate the learning of its Professors the civility and politeness of its Inhabitants by the Pens of some of the greatest Orators of their times And yet above all these renowned for this one peculiar honour that here it was that the Disciples were first called Christians It was an University replenished with Schools of learning wherein were Professors of all Arts and Sciences So that being born in the very lap of the Muses he could not well miss of an ingenuous and liberal education his natural parts meeting with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great improvements Nay we are told that he studied not only at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all the Schools both of Greece and Egypt whereby he became accomplished in all parts of Learning and humane Sciences Being thus furnished out with skill in all the preparatory Institutions of Philosophy he more particularly applied himself to the study of Physick for which the 〈◊〉 Academies weremost famous though they that hence infer the 〈◊〉 of his Birth and Fortunes forget to 〈◊〉 that this noble Art was in those times generally managed by persons of no better rank than servants Upon which account a Learned man conceives S. Luke though a Syrian by birth to have been a servant at Rome where he sometimes practised Physick and whence being manumitted he returned into his own Country and probably continued his profession all his life it being so fairly consistent with and in many cases so subservient to the Ministry of the Gospel and the care of Souls Besides his abilities in Physick he is said to have been very skilful in Painting and there are no less than three or four several pieces still in being pretended to have been drawn with his own hand a tradition which Gretser the Jesuit sets himself with a great deal of pains and to very little purpose to defend though his Authors either in respect of credit or antiquity deserve very little esteem and value Of more authority with me would be an ancient Inscription found in a Vault near the Church of S. Mary in Via lata at Rome supposed to have been the place where S. Paul dwelt wherein mention is made of a Picture of the B. Virgin U NA EX VII A B. LUCA DEPICTIS being one of the seven painted by S. Luke 2. HE was a Jewish Proselyte 〈◊〉 abounding with men of that Nation who had here their Synagogues and Schools of Education so that we need not with Theophylact send him to Jerusalem to be instructed in the study of the Law As for that opinion of 〈◊〉 and others that he was one of the Seventy Disciples one of those that deserted our Lord for the unwelcome discourse he made to them but recalled afterwards by S. Paul I behold it as a story of the same coin and stamp with that of S. Mark' s leaving Christ upon the same occasion and being reduced by Peter and that the one was made to answer the other as upon no better ground it is said that he was one of those two Disciples that were going to Emaus For besides the silence of Scripture in the case he himself plainly confesses that he was not from the beginning an Eye-witness and minister of the Word Most probable it is that he was converted by S. Paul during his abode at Antioch when as the Apostles of catchers of Fish were become fishers of men so he of a Physician of the Body became a Physician of the Soul This Nicephorus will have to have been done at Thebes the chief City of 〈◊〉 about forty miles from Athens though it appears not to me by any credible Author that ever S. Paul was there He became ever after his inseparable companion and fellow-labourer in the ministry of the Gospel especially after his going into Macedonia from which time in recording the History of S. Paul's travels he always speaks of himself in his own person He followed him in all his dangers was with him at his several arraignments at Jerusalem accompanied him in his desperate voyage to Rome where he still attended on him to serve his necessities and supply those ministerial Offices which the Apostle's 〈◊〉 would not 〈◊〉 him to undergo and especially in carrying messages to those Churches where he had planted Christianity This infinitely endeared him to S. Paul who own'd him for his fellow-labourer called him the beloved Physician and the Brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches which the Ancients and especially Ignatius apply to our Evangelist 3. PROBABLE it is that he did not wholly leave S. Paul till he had finished his course and crowned all with Martyrdom though there are that tell us that he left S. Paul at Rome and returned back into the East travelled into Egypt and the parts of Libya preached the Gospel wrought Miracles converted multitudes constituted Guides and Ministers of Religion yea that he himself took upon him the Episcopal charge of the City of Thebais Epiphanius gives us this account that he first preached in Dalmatia and Galatia he reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gaul or France and peremptorily affirms that they are all mistaken that say that it was Galatia where Crescens preached though some think that himself in the mean while is under the most confident mistake then in Italy and
Macedonia where he spared no pains declined no dangers that he might faithfully discharge the trust committed to him The Ancients are not very well agreed either about the time or manner of his death some affirming him to die in Egypt others in Greece the Roman Martyrologie in Bithynia 〈◊〉 at Ephesus some make him die a natural others a violent death Indeed neither Eusebius nor S. Hierom take any notice of it But Nazianzen Paulinus Bishop of Nola and several other expresly assert his Martyrdom whereof Nicephorus gives this particular account that coming into Greece he successfully preached and baptized many Converts into the Christian Faith till a party of Infidels making head against him drew him to execution and in want of a Cross whereon to dispatch him presently hanged him upon an Olive-Tree in the eightieth the eighty fourth says S. Hierom year of his age Kirstenius from an ancient Arabick writer makes him to have suffered Martyrdom at Rome which he thinks might probably be after S. Paul's first imprisonment there and departure thence when S. Luke being left behind as his deputy to supply his place was shortly after put to death the reason says he why he no longer continued his History of the Apostles Acts which surely he would have done had he lived any considerable time after S. Paul's departure His Body afterwards by the command of Constantine or his Son Constantius was solemnly removed to Constantinople and buried in the great Church built to the memory of the Apostles 4. TWO Books he wrote for the use of the Church his Gospel and the History of the Apostles Acts both dedicated to Theophilus which many of the Ancients suppose to be but a feigned name denoting no more than a lover of God a title common to every Christian. While others with better reason conclude it the proper name of a particular person especially since the stile of most excellent is attributed to him the usual title and form of address in those times to Princes and great men Theophylact stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Consular dignity and probably a Prince the Author of the Recognitions makes him a Nobleman of Antioch converted by Peter and who upon his conversion gave his house to the Church for the place of their publick and solemn meetings We may probably suppose him to have been some Magistrate whom S. Luke had converted and baptised to whom he now dedicated these Books not only as a testimony of honourable respect but as a means of giving him further certainty and assurance of those things wherein he had been instructed by him For his Gospel S. Hierom supposes it to have been written in Achaia during his travels with S. Paul in those parts whose help he is generally said to have made use of in the composing of it and that this the Apostle primarily intends when he so often speaks of his Gospel But whatever assistance S. Paul might contribute towards it we are sure the Evangelist himself tells us that he derived his intelligence in these matters from those who from the beginning had been eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Nor does it in the least detract from the authority of his relations that he himself was not present at the doing of them for if we consider who they were from whom he derived his accounts of things Habuit utique authenticam paraturam as Tertullian speaks he had a stock both of credit and intelligence sufficiently authentick to proceed upon delivering nothing in his whole History but what he had immediately received from persons present at and concerned in the things which he has lest upon record The occasion of his writing it is thought to have been partly to prevent those false and fabulous relations which even then began to be obtruded upon the World partly to supply what seemed wanting in those two Evangelists that wrote before him and the additions or larger explications of things are particularly enumerated by Irenaeus He mainly insists upon what relates to Christ's Priestly Office and though recording other parts of the Evangelical story yet it ever is with a peculiar respect to his Priesthood Upon which account the Ancients in accommodating the four Symbolical representments in the Prophets Vision to the four Evangelists assigned the Oxe or 〈◊〉 to S. Luke 5. His History of the Apostolick Acts was written no doubt at Rome at the end of S. Paul's two years imprisonment there with which he concludes his story it contains the Actions and sometimes the sufferings of some principal Apostles especially S. Paul for besides that his activity in the cause of Christ made him bear a greater part both in doing and suffering S. Luke was his constant attendant an eye-witness of the whole carriage of his life and privy to his most intimate transactions and therefore capable of giving a more full and satisfactory account and relation of them seeing no evidence or testimony in matters of fact can be more rational and convictive than his who reports nothing but what he has heard and seen Among other things he gives us a particular account of those great miracles which the Apostles did for the confirmation of their doctrine And this as Chrysostom informs us was the reason why in the Primitive times the Book of the Acts though containing those Actions of the Apostles that were done 〈◊〉 Pentecost were yet usually read in the Church before it in the space between that and Easter when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season it was says he because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christ's Resurrection and those Miracles recorded in that Book it was therefore thought most proper to be read next to the feast of the Resurrection In both these Books his way and manner of writing is exact and accurate his stile polite and elegant sublime and lofty and yet clear and perspicuous flowing with an easie and natural grace and sweetness admirably accommodate to an historical design all along expressing himself in a vein of purer Greek than is to be found in the other writers of the holy Story Indeed being born and bred at Antioch than which no place more famous for Oratory and Eloquence he could not but carry away a great share of the native genius of that place though his stile is sometimes allayed with a tang of the Syriack and Hebrew dialect It was observed of old as S. Hierom tells us that his skill was greater in Greek than Hebrew that therefore he always makes use of the Septuagint Translation and refuses sometimes to render words when the propriety of the Greek tongue will not bear it In short as an Historian he was faithful in his relations elegant in his writings as a Minister careful and diligent for the good of Souls as a Christian devout
industry for the good of the Church He suffered in the ninth year of the persecution with the loss of his head gaining the crown of Martyrdom After whose death came in the prosperous and happy days of the Church Constantine the Great turning the black and dismal scene of things into a state of calmness and serenity XVIII Achillas 9 though Nicephorus of Constantinople allows him but one year By him Arius upon his submission was ordained Presbyter XIX Alexander 23 under him Arius began more openly to broach his Heresie at Alexandria who was thereupon excommunicated and thrust out by Alexander and shortly after condemn'd by the Fathers of the Council of Nice ERRATA 〈◊〉 Pag. 15. line 17. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 22. l. 6. for silent r. 〈◊〉 p. 31. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 47. l. 51. for were r. 〈◊〉 Lives of the Apostles Introduct p. 7. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Book p. 2. l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 p. 9. l. 12. dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11. l. 17. for lawful r. careful p. 32. l. 45. r. 〈◊〉 p. 33. l. 15. for of r. 〈◊〉 p. 36. marg over against l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 p. 43. l. 54. r. Man p. 84. l. 17. after the add 〈◊〉 p. 87. l. 33. for This add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 109. l. 52. after he add had Some other literal mistakes the Reader I hope will amend In the 〈◊〉 words these two letters Daleth and Resh are not sufficiently distinguished FINIS A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author' s own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Jer. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick An Answer to a Book Entituled A Rational Compendious way to Convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true Religion by J. K. By Gilbert Burnet In Octavo new The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to or a Book of Devotions for Families c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious aud Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo new Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Go in Peace Containing some brief Directions for young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Useful for the People in their state both of Health and Sickness In 12. New Conformity according to Canon Justified and the new way of Moderation Reproved A Sermon Preached at Exon in the Cathedral of S. Peter at the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God Anthony by Divine permission Lord Bishop of Exon. By William Gould In Quarto New A Visitation Sermon preached in the Cathedral at Exon. By John Prince Minister of the Gospel at S. Martins Exon. A Sermon preached at the Oxfordshire-Feast Novemb. 25. 1674. In the Church of S. Michael's Cornhill London By John Woolley M. A. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. de 〈◊〉 pag. 350. 〈◊〉 XXVII in Genes Tom. 2. p. 285. Heb. 1. 1 2. * Talm. Trast Sanbedr cap. Halce alibi vid. Menass Ben Isr. dâ— Resurrect lib. 3. c. 3. Concil Quast xxx in Genes Rom. 2. 14 15. Gen. 4. 6 7. Gem. Babyl Tâ— Sanhedr cap. 7. fol. 56. Maimond Tr. Me lak cap. 9. al â—â— passim ap Judaeos vid. Selâ—en de Jur. N. G. l. 1. c. 10. de Synedr Vol. 1. c. 2. p. 8. Job 31. 26 27 28. Job 1. 6. Job 31. 29 Job 31. 9 10 11. Vers. 5. 7. Chap. 24. 2 3 4 seq Chap. 31. 11-28 Gen. 9. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr de 〈◊〉 lib. 1. Sect. 47. p. 39. 〈◊〉 V. 5 6. 〈◊〉 17. 11. Gen 17. 9 10 11. * Talm. Tract Jeban 〈◊〉 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 49. p. 506. Gen. 6. 2 3. Gen. 18. 19. Gen. 18. 2. Exod 4. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XVIII in 〈◊〉 p. 173. Tom. 2. Gen. 15. 17. Psalm 20. 3. 〈◊〉 P. 〈◊〉 in Gen. 4. Gen. 8. 20. Gen. 12. 7 8. 〈◊〉 chap. 13. 4. 18. Gen. 21. 33. Judg 6. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. Deut. 16. 21. 〈◊〉 13. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX Ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliter 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 18. 1. * Antiquit. Jd. l. 1. c. 11. p. 19. * 〈◊〉 loc 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Arboch ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Hist. Ec. l. lit 2. c. 4. p. 447. Gen. 4. 30 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 19. 22. Exod. 24. 5. Gen. 49. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 71. col 1. ap Selden de success ad leg Ebr. c. 5. p. 45. Heb. 12. 16. Gen. 3. 21. Levit. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil. XVIII in 〈◊〉 p. 174. Heb. 11. 4. Gen. 4. 4 5. Antiquit. Jud. 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smeg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. p. 226. seqq Gen. 4. 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Sect. 1. ‖ Vid. ap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cit p. 230. * Dionys. Voss. not in 〈◊〉 p. 4. 〈◊〉 de Hist. Patr. 〈◊〉 6. p. 223. ‖ R. Eliez Maas Beres 〈◊〉 22. ibid. Gen. 6. 2. * Elmacin ap 〈◊〉 p. 233. Id. 〈◊〉 p. 234. * Elmac. Patric apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supr p. 235. Gen. 5. 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 5 6. Gen. 5. 29. Gen. 6. 9. Antiqu. Jud. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 4. p. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syria p. 882. 〈◊〉 2. Genes 11. 〈◊〉 7. 11. 5. 32. 10. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p.